San Francisco, California-based GitLab, a software developer of a platform that helps organizations manage the entire software development lifecycle in one system—from planning and coding to testing, security scanning, deployment, and monitoring, has announced a significant restructuring and a 14% reduction in its workforce.
The reduction in force affects 350 employees across 22 countries, flattens management layers, and invests in infrastructure to scale its platform and serve increased traffic from AI workflows, with a sharper focus on research and development.
According to Bill Staples
A letter to our team.
Today is hard. I want to acknowledge how difficult today is given the volume of change we’re asking you to take in, and the uncertainty of a transparent restructuring process.
We've spent three days together on the why, the what, and the how of where GitLab is going. This letter is the written summary, so you have something to reflect on as we navigate the coming week together.
Why we're initiating a transparent restructure of the company
This restructure process is not like others you may be seeing in the news. Of course AI is changing the way we work and is part of our transformation plan, but this is not an AI optimization or cost cutting exercise. We intend to reinvest the vast majority of savings back into the business to accelerate our unique opportunity in the agentic era as defined in our Act 2 Core Beliefs.
One way our restructure process is different is that we are doing it transparently and including every team member in the process. Starting today, managers across the company are entering deeper conversations with leadership about how the restructuring principles land inside their teams. Those conversations will inform the decision of impacted roles. The reason we're not landing the full decision today is that getting the shape of the next GitLab right matters more than getting it fast — and a transparent process with input from you, your managers, leaders across the organization, and our employee representatives is the best way to land this change with an organization ready to move forward.
As we discussed today, we are planning a workforce reduction driven by a concentration of our country footprint, flattening how we're organized, and role right-sizing designed to optimize the shape and size of our teams. In addition, we’re establishing a new set of operating principles, founded on a culture of excellence.
I want to be direct: I want to do this once, and do it right, and not revisit our structure anytime in the foreseeable future. The team that comes through this restructure is the team that builds Act 2, and you should be able to plan your life and your work without bracing for what comes next. Let’s talk about what’s changing and how we get it right.
The restructuring principles we’re optimizing for
Reduced operational footprint: We’re reducing our country footprint because operating in nearly 60 countries does not allow us to give every team member a great experience. We anticipate reducing the number of countries by 30% focused on geos where we have only a handful of people or fewer. Team members who are in good standing and would like to relocate are welcome to do so. We'll continue to serve customers in those markets through our partner network where appropriate.
Flatter organization: We’re flattening our organization because eight layers is too deep for a company our size and management layers are slowing us down. Every layer of management increases the number of places where priorities and communication gets filtered. A flatter organization will better connect every team member with leadership.
Role right-sizing: As we shift to a new strategy and way of working, powered by AI, we must revisit the size of staffing for each role to ensure we are optimizing for speed and customer outcomes. In some cases, AI can augment and accelerate what team members have been doing, in other places we need to expand certain roles to go faster. We do expect daily use of AI by every individual in the company and we are launching AI acceleration programs to support every role as part of our transformation.
How we’ll operate going forward
We will be retiring CREDIT as our values framework. CREDIT was the right framework for the very successful Act 1 that took the company to $1B ARR. Those values shaped a company that thrived through COVID and our IPO to become one of the most recognized names in DevSecOps. We are not retiring them because they were wrong, we are choosing instead to focus on something different for this era which demands a different operating posture. Many of the same values we have been living and often talk about are still directly applicable in this era. Our three new operating principles are:
Speed with Quality means we move faster than we have, with the discipline that lets others rely on the work, especially our customers. We achieve this with smaller teams, tighter cycles, and stronger guardrails. We will hold a higher bar for what we commit to and what we deliver against those commitments. Here are some specific examples we shared today of what we expect every team member to embody:
We organize and execute cross-functional projects in small teams with more autonomy
We set high standards for quality, always prove what we build with customer zero first
We build fast, experiment, learn and fail fast, especially for two way decisions
If an agent can do it, we automate it, and find things where our judgement or skill is essential
We have zero tolerance for unnecessary bureaucracy
We use both sync (for speed) and async (for scale) patterns
Ownership Mindset means we expect every individual to act as a steward for the company and with autonomy. The people closest to the work make the decisions about it, and they own the result. Layers of management between leaders and the work coming out, and handoffs that dilute accountability are eliminated. Some examples of the mindset we expect every team member to embody:
I take pride in my work because it delivers real outcomes
It is never someone else's problem
Everyone is on my team
I care deeply for the customer and the business health
I am efficient with budget, people and everyone’s time
Customer Outcomes means we measure ourselves by what changes for the customer, not by the activity on our side. Internal milestones matter only to the extent that they connect to customer impact. Examples of behaviors we expect from everyone:
I can explain how my work connects to a customer outcome, not just a roadmap item or task/activity
My work creates joy and delight for customers so they love GitLab
I build customer relationships on fairness and mutual respect, and I make sure every deal works for both sides.
I’m focused on value realization first because that drives bigger commitments over time
When a customer is stuck, I treat their time like it's more expensive than mine
These are built on a culture of excellence, which we expect every team member to uphold. That means:
Excellence in thought: team members who are sharp, understand deeply and with precision, communicate with clarity and integrity
Excellence in action: people with the ability to produce high quality results and business impact
Interpersonal excellence: individuals who are good humans, embrace diversity, inclusion and belonging, assume good intent and treat everyone with respect
Next steps in the restructuring process
Our transparent restructure process creates uncertainty that is real and it's hard, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I ask that you reflect on the why, what and how and engage your manager in a real conversation about the work, the questions and concerns you have, and what the next chapter looks like for you. Your manager may not have all the answers, because they too are going through this period of uncertainty. The conversation still matters and your input shapes how we land as a team.
The voluntary window exists for you. After three days walking through Act 2 together, you have the picture you need to decide whether GitLab is the right place for you in the next chapter of your career. If it isn't, talk to your manager or director and, where local requirements allow, apply for a separation before May 18. If approved, we'll include you in the same separation package as anyone else. The approval process exists because individual circumstances and local requirements vary and have to be weighed case by case. This process is meant to provide something we all deserve once the restructure is complete: a team that is excited and committed to the future of GitLab. Please take a moment to listen to what Sid, our founder and Exec Chair, thinks about the changes we’re making today.
Why I hope you stay
I want to spend the rest of this letter convincing you to stay, if the “Why” and the “What” sessions haven’t already convinced you.
Better employee experience. Our overriding objective is to bring a significant improvement to the joy and impact of each team member participating in Act 2. We know that by doing that, we can better capture the creativity and impact of every individual and build a world class business.
Better pay. Once approved, our new bonus program will give every team member who isn’t on an incentive compensation plan or bonus plan today, the opportunity to earn a cash bonus based on their individual performance, targeting 10% of salary, awarded at their manager’s discretion.
Smaller, empowered R&D teams with a clear vision. We aspire to double the number of smaller, R&D teams - up to 60 - with more autonomy and ownership.
Less friction, less overhead. The handoffs that have slowed us down are going to be significantly reduced. The layers between you and the decisions that affect your work are being reduced. If you've ever been frustrated at GitLab by how long it took to get something obvious done, Act 2 is engineered around removing that friction.
Solve big technical problems. Our five architectural bets provide deep, technical problems that will redefine GitLab for the agentic era, including a new git for agents that supports machine scale, an orchestration layer for humans, agents and full lifecycle orchestration, a connected graph of full lifecycle data as a service, brand new policy service to provide centralized governance and a fully autonomous software engineering experience.
More flexible buying programs. Our new consumption buying programs will make it far easier to sell GitLab and for customers to buy GitLab seats + credits and unlock adoption faster than ever before.
Career growth. Bold bets like Act 2 are rare and bring with them opportunities for every team member at every level to learn faster and develop skills and experience that will matter for the rest of your career, here or wherever your path takes you.
Aligned leadership with the will to win. We have a leadership team with e-group, and our SLT, that is committed to win, make the hard decisions and align the organization cross functionally to accelerate results. We will hold ourselves accountable to help you succeed and create a winning organization.
Uniquely positioned to win. We are uniquely positioned to not only participate, but to lead in our category where the TAM is exploding at a step function rate. We have structural advantages in data, technology and customer trust that give us an advantage over AI labs and start-ups that we can harness to redefine how software is built in the agentic era. By being part of Act 2, you will be part of a winning organization that helps shape software engineering in the agentic era.
For those who are leaving
Whether by choice or otherwise: the work you did here mattered, and it continues to matter. You came to GitLab when it needed you. You built things the next chapter is built on. We owe you real support through the transition, and our genuine respect. If we're asking our team to be world-class, we have a reciprocal obligation to be world-class in how we treat people leaving us. That's the standard we're holding ourselves to.
I'll close with this. None of what I've written makes today easier. It isn't supposed to. What I want you to know is that we've made these decisions carefully, our intention is to make them only once, and we're going to do right by the people leaving and by the people staying.
Thank you for what you've built. Thank you for what comes next.
Bill Staples, CEO, GitLab
Change is constant, and it's coming. There will always be a tomorrow, no matter how much you may try to ignore it. There are no guarantees in life, nor promises of a bright future. We see good people being laid off through no fault of their own. Just because something terrible hasn't happened yet doesn't mean it won't. It can happen to anyone, at any time, anywhere. No one is guaranteed to wake up tomorrow and still have a job by evening. While many employees can read the writing on the wall, why do most assume it’s targeted at someone else? Are you now wondering, Am I Next?